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Rozner: Frustrated Blackhawks looking for answers

There was a common theme postgame Thursday night after the Blackhawks were suffocated by the Anaheim defense and bullied by the Anaheim offense.

“Frustrated” was the word most commonly used.

It was honest, accurate and perhaps displayed too frequently on the ice during the game.

The Ducks' 2-1 victory at the UC also gave Anaheim a 2-1 series lead and home-ice advantage, with another crucial game Saturday in Chicago.

“At this point, every game is a must game,” said veteran Patrick Sharp. “Every game is critical and every shift matters.”

The Ducks scored a pair of goals with Corey Perry parked out front again, the game-winner with only 54 seconds left in the middle period when Ryan Getzlaf fed Simon Despres for the one-timer and he beat Corey Crawford from the right circle.

Crawford believes there was more involved than simply a screen.

“I got bumped,” Crawford said. “I got bumped the whole game. Not enough to get called, but it was enough on that one.

“It's a little distracting. It's frustrating, but I have to find a way to not get caught up in that.”

The Ducks stifled the Hawks in the third and yet another power play went for naught when the Hawks failed to get bodies to the net and pucks to the goal.

“It's frustrating,” Sharp said. “We have to be better. We have to get pucks to the net.”

Captain Jonathan Toews did not use the word, but he didn't have to. His remarks were short and his temper not far behind.

“We're not making any excuses,” Toews said. “We'll find ways to be better in the next one. It's a great team we're playing and we know we have to be better on special teams.”

Most frustrating for Hawks fans was seeing Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom back in the lineup in place of Teuvo Teravainen and Antoine Vermette.

It meant Andrew Shaw was back at third-line center after some terrific games as a fourth-line winger. It meant the ineffective Versteeg dragged down another line, this time with Sharp on it, and it meant no Teravainen, which is inexplicable.

Perhaps most baffling is burying Sharp on the third line, when he could be helping Patrick Kane shake loose. To this point, Kane has a single point in the series after a Ducks collision offered him a loose puck in the slot and led to a goal late in the first period Thursday.

Joel Quenneville has pushed a lot of correct buttons on his way to a Hall of Fame career, but sometimes he hits that button and it sticks. Such was the case in Game 3. Versteeg hasn't done much since the calendar flipped to 2015 and yet Quenneville continues to go back to him.

“We just wanted to get some fresh legs in there,” Quenneville said. “We felt that (Versteeg) had never played over a long stretch in the last series, and we wanted to get him back in there.

“Tough game the other day, travel, we wanted to bring some new guys in.”

Meanwhile, Kane is stuck in the mud playing with Brad Richards and Bryan Bickell and Sharp was stuck on the third line with Shaw and Versteeg.

It doesn't make much sense.

“We're not gonna hang our heads,” Sharp said. “We know what we have to do and we'll come back with a better effort Saturday.”

In the meantime, full credit to the Ducks after a heartbreaking, triple-overtime loss. They came back and played a very smart and patient road game.

“It told me what I know, that they're a great character team,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau. “This was a character win, a very good checking game for us on the road.

“They're going to get some chances. There's no way you can stop them from getting chances, but I thought we limited their chances on the road. For a tired group, it was a really good game for us.”

While giving up a power-play goal, the Hawks also failed to score on five man-advantage opportunities.

“It's frustrating,” said Brent Seabrook. “We just have to be better.

“Our second periods, I think we could do some things to be better and we'll have to work on that.

“We have to come out and do our part on Saturday to keep pace with these guys and make it a 2-2 series and a best-of-three. We have to come out and have our best game of the series on Saturday and be ready to roll right from puck drop.”

History suggests the Hawks will do just that.

And the Ducks will do their best to frustrate them again.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM.

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